Egyptian Art

Ancient Egyptian art

In the picture that I drew, Anibus is standing next to the hart scale. To the left is Ammut the soul eating monster.  This is the weighing of the hart; this is a ceremony that supposedly took place. According to The Book of the Dead each Egyptian who was supposed to go and have an afterlife had to get his hart weighed first. If the hart is heavier than the feather or the bull’s head the person has done wrong. If you have done wrong your heart is through to Ammut who eats it.  Anibus is the god of the afterlife, he observes each heart weighing and has a view into the life of the person, and if he sees injustice he will tilt the scale the opposite way.  Ammut is Anibuses pet, his job is to eat the hearts of the wrong doer.

This is an important picture because the Egyptians strongly believed in the afterlife so it was important to them to illustrate what the process looked like. This picture could have been a part of the book of the dead, in which they explain how to have a successful after life or the picture could have been on the walls of a tomb or royal palace.   Most likely the picture could have been drawn during the great Egyptian dynasty, because in that period (2890 to 2686 BC) this type of drawing isn’t usually made because it looks nice but because it is supposed to teach people about the afterlife, that is why painters make many copies of the same painting. At the time painters were basically slaves who could draw, they drew for countless hours in extreme heat and sun.